Green River Star -

Letter: Health workers deserve thanks

As the President of the Wyoming Nurses Association (WNA), I’d like to recognize and give thanks to all involved in the fight of COVID 19 in Wyoming. The Wyoming Nurses Association is the professional organization for registered nurses in Wyoming. Our mission is to promote the profession of nursing, provide a unified voice for nurses, and advocate for a healthier Wyoming

Incident Command centers in every community, public health officials, first responders, primary care providers, nurses, respiratory therapists, and all who support them deserve our support and thanks. Wyoming has a good system and plan in place for fighting this disease.

Governor Gordon has been proactive in working to stop the spread, and the Wyoming State Board of Nursing and the State of Wyoming are issuing guidelines and emergency measures to assist health care providers to protect and expand their workforce. It has been heartening to see organizations and Wyoming businesses big and small step up to help in whatever way they can.

According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, Wyoming’s peak resource use is expected at the end of April. Daily, we are bombarded with news and fears of shortages of PPE (personal protective equipment). Let us all work towards keeping Wyoming COVID-19 low and pray that Wyoming is not tested as other states in our country have been. Time in public places should be drastically limited and when visiting public places, the community should follow the CDC guidelines to wear cloth masks.

The effects of this pandemic will be with us for a very long time. We have much to learn during this time and we need to be sure to include the voices of nurses and frontline health care workers in decisions moving forward. WNA hopes that every nurse and health care worker in Wyoming feels supported.

To get through this pandemic, we need to remain calm, kind to ourselves and each other, and take extra care of our physical and mental health.